I have been training and developing employees for 23 years now. I've spent eight in a corporate environment and fifteen as a consultant, so this insight is from two perspectives.
Training and development of employees is something that belongs to the domain of human resources and in companies that have this sector, the organization and the budget are centralized.
Practices vary widely. At one end of the spectrum are companies with substantial training budgets that have democratized access to learning by allowing employees to register openly for workshops from a predefined schedule. These are often high-revenue companies with unlimited resources for training. However, in organizations where access to education has been democratized, attendance can become a problem: the entire budget may be spent, while only half of the participants actively take part.
On the other side of the spectrum, there are companies that either don't have HR, or have the attitude that any lack of skills can be solved by hiring, so they don't have a budget for education. On this other side of the spectrum, there are also some multinationals, but since the local business is just a statistical error in the group P&L, they have 0 (zero) training budget.
There are two key drivers for organizing trainings:
- Mandatory by law - extension of a license for performing in a certain role, mandatory vocational training of employees, etc.
- Training to solve some perceived deficiencies or problems.
Regardless of the approach to this topic, expectations from the training outcome are high. However, enabling training does not mean transforming an individual, team or organization.
The training, regardless of the format (good ratio of theory and practice, workshop, blended learning, distance learning, excellent educator), brings information to the participants about a new technique, skill, tool... and even when experiential learning is involved, it does not lead to an immediate change in behavior after the training. Why? The answer is simpler than it seems. Because only a few participants experience an "aha" moment during the training, and after the training participants do not receive adequate support within the organization.
What kind of support is needed?
Each professional educator will provide participants with scripts, some additional materials, and forms for applying what they have learned and will transfer the responsibility for the application to participants.
HR took over the organization and budgeting, and that's where all of HR's responsibility ends.
However, when the trainee returns to his job, what awaits him?!
He will face unchanged processes and procedures, business priorities that were waiting while he was on training, a manager who was not on training because he had more important work to do and who will "naturally" expect a complete transformation in work, that people will become more efficient and work performance will increase.
NO, it will not happen!
Here's the reason not:
- Even when the training objectives are linked to business results, they are only on paper.
- The role of a manager, his or her influence and responsibilities for further development of people are almost never clearly defined, and often managers are not trained in how to do it.
- Managers have business KPIs, but never people development KPIs.
- Even when some changes happen at the micro level (team or organizational unit level), there will always be someone in upper management who will minimize the impact of learning and skills on business results. This is a classic problem of organizational culture, the behavior of individuals will be tolerated "because they are great for business", while those who learn and develop are sent the message that it is not important.
Where are we now?
After several economic and health crises in which training and development were by definition treated as a budgetary "appendix" (remove it, and the organism continues to function unhindered), we are currently, it seems to me, in a technological vacuum where it is expected that artificial intelligence will take care of a lot of things by itself, not only on the business side, but also on the side of developing the skills of employees. Sporadically, one can see companies invest in the development of leadership skills but bearing in mind that recent research testifies to a drastic drop in employee engagement, I am afraid that this investment will not ensure the expected return. Budgets have either been cut or abolished, and employers have never been more vocal about the crisis of skilled personnel.
On the other hand, individuals, it seems, did not give up on acquiring new skills, it just moved to private time. More, and more webinars starting at 6pm or 8pm. I see no other reason for this than that people are still trying to stay competitive in an already tough job market by acquiring new knowledge and skills.
If we do not invest in employees, do not develop their knowledge and skills, and increasingly use AI as an excuse for layoffs, the above-mentioned leaders will soon have no one to lead... Maybe the future of many leadership positions is a specialist with advanced skills in using AI?!
Now someone may think that I have something against AI. On the contrary, I have been using some of the tools for some time. However, I must mention that it is JUST a tool and regardless of whether you want AI to optimize your processes, increase your productivity and even help you learn something new. Keep in mind that most tools work on the principle of " bullshit in - bullshit out ", so my main question now is "Do we have the knowledge and skills to store adequate input data, so that the output is what we expected?" or will we continue to expect a miracle, as we expected it from a trainer, or a trainee, without interfering in our (manager’s) work?
The attitude towards learning and skills development investments in the corporate environment will, I fear, continue to function on the principle of „it either hurts you, or you don't give a damn“. (*the author of this quote is known to the author of this article)
People development consultant